The Search for the Nether
by MoonstoneGoddess
Summary: Nether has her dimension back! Or does she? It's not the SAME. It's a fusion, and Nether hates it. She wants to go back- to the OLD Nether. And she's not alone. Sun also desperately wants things to go back to normal, and there's a lot of things he'd do to ensure that it happens. Sequel to Soul of the Nether.
1. Him

**Listen, I'm sorry.**

 **I know I could've just left everybody to be in pain in the Nether-Overworld fusion, but I had too many ideas. I don't know when to stop. But I just HAD to make this, I had a ton of ideas. Spoiler alert: It only gets worse from hereon out.**

 **(Smiles evilly)**

 **By the way, if you are new to my (weird) story, then DON'T READ THIS. Go read Soul of the Nether. GO!**

* * *

 _Have you ever seen a god? A picture of a god? Now imagine that god with a crease between his eyebrows. Constantly struggling not to cry. Imagine him after almost everything had been stripped away from him._

 _That was how_ he _was now. Forced on some kind of search for an oracle or something. Nobody knew exactly what he was searching for, including him. But whatever it was, he needed to find it, fast._

 _For everyone's good._

 _Because if he didn't…_

 _Things would say as they were._

 _And as he thought about that, a tear escaped his eye._


	2. Rebel

**I quite like this chapter. I like Rebel! I'll put in more characters from Soul of the Nether in future chapters.**

 **And again, I'm sorry. There will be three stories from this ABSOLUTE TOPS. (Hopefully I'll manage to stick to that!)**

* * *

Months had passed, but it seemed like just yesterday that Sun had stood on a mountaintop and watched the Nether spread over his world like a stain of blood. Since then he'd seen some terrible things.

Or at least to him they were terrible.

He wanted it to stop.

Nether had been almost diplomatic the day after it happened. 'Course, she'd taken away almost everything he'd had. But he'd done the same thing. And he'd gloated about it. Fool that he was. He hit his head with his palm just thinking about it.

Nether had explained calmly that this was a temporary arrangement and said that the minute he retrieved the Nether from the bottom of the theoretical pond he'd have this place back.

He wouldn't want it much, to be honest. But it could be fixed. He was sure of that.

His reverie was disturbed when he noticed he was tramping past a village. A half-burnt one. Made of Netherbrick, like they all were now.

People stared curiously out of holes in the walls and Sun hunched over, seemingly attempting to hide in his own shoulders. He hated it when this happened- when his former people stared at him. Recognising him. He'd failed them. Utterly.

He'd told himself he'd broke the Nether to protect them, but that wasn't true. He'd been jealous. Jealous of Nether's power, and scared of it. Scared of her. So he'd tried to ruin her. But what goes around comes around. He hunched further into his shoulders.

He felt a tug on his arm and turned to see a small girl with a long nose and a pixie cut. "You look sick. Mama is a doctor?"

He shook his head and shrank back. "No, I'm not sick. Just a bit sad."

"Everyone's sad," the girl retorted. "You're not the only one. That's not a reason to walk around like that. You look like a griefer who's nervous about their first job. That's what my brother says. He thought you was going to kill me when I talked to you but you didn't. I don't think you're a griefer," the girl concluded.

Sun half-smiled. "I have reason enough to be sad."

The girl frowned and twitched her nose like a rabbit. "So does- Oh!" having caught a glance at Sun's eyes. His glowing gold eyes. She started to laugh. "You're _him._ "

Sun took a step back. "I suppose I am…"

He half expected the kid to attack him, or tear him apart with her blunt and rather cutting tongue, or at the very least call out in anger for an adult. But she did nothing of the sort. She grabbed his wrist and started dragging him towards a type of hill. "I know something that will make you happy."

"Do you now? Would it happen to be a bed where I can wake up from this nightmare? Or maybe you single-handedly-"

The girl turned, glared at him, and smacked him. "No need to be rude. I'm making you feel better!" And she resumed yanking him toward the hill. When she got there, she slipped inside a crevice in it. In order to get in, Sun had to drop to his knees and crawl into the narrow space.

 _Eventually_ , the passage widened and got and heightened so Sun could stand.

The girl stood at an end of it, at a door. She opened it and light spilled out that was brighter than outside. She beckoned him frantically and ran inside. Sun plodded after her.

And saw green.

"I had a sapling!" the little girl crowed. "And dirt! And there was a hole in the hill."

She jumped about gleefully and patted the tree.

"It's still alive," she whispered. "There's still hope."

Sun just stared, slack-jawed, at the miracle.

He couldn't allow the wave of hope that was trying to swallow him to succeed. He _could_ fix this, like _right now,_ he could-

He beat it down sternly. He _would_ do these things. But it would take a long time. They would _not_ be done now.

"I think I should go," Sun said at last. "But- but thank you."

The girl grinned. She twitched her nose again. She seemed to take great joy in that.

As he left the hollow hill, she shouted after him, "By the way, my name's Rebekah." She pronounced it 'RE-bekah'.

She ran up behind him and grinned.

"Most people call me Rebel."


	3. The Other Two

**Recently I have developed plans. Evil plans. Sun, Nether, Dragon, Dynamite, Rebel... YOU WILL SUFFER!**

 **(Seb won't suffer, though. He will rejoice in the chance to say, "I told you so."**

 **Seriously though, as this story develops, give me your theories on what will happen. (That way, if your idea is better than mine, I can steal it and say it was my idea. :P) But in all honestly, please tell me your theories. Clue: Think about all of those TINY, INSIGNIFICANT DETAILS. THEY ARE EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING!**

* * *

Sun did what he'd done for months. He searched. For what? No idea.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped, his hands fisting.

"Sorry."

Sun's eyes narrowed and he spun on his heel. It was who he'd suspected. A boy who looked both very young and very old at the same time, wrapped in a black leathery cloak. Dragon.

"You're sorry for startling me?" Sun demanded. "Really? Where were you and your apologies-"

His throat choked up.

"Yes. I know." There were purple bags under Dragon's dark eyes. "And I- I'm sorry about that, too."

Sun turned away. "Why were your people even in the Nether anyway? How did they even get the netherrack?"

Dragon didn't answer. Instead, he said, "A Wither said that Nether wanted you to report to her."

Sun gritted his teeth. "I have to?"

"There would be certain merits to it, yes," Dragon said with a grim smile.

Sun balled his fists and stormed away.

* * *

Sun was actually rather shocked when he reached Nether's one fortress and found her.

She was sitting on the floor with her face to the wall. Her arms were resting on the wall and her head was resting on her arms, and she was shuddering with sobs.

 _Huh. I didn't know she could cry._

Of course, the tears weren't particularly normal. They were boiling and steamed when they hit the floor.

Nether would hate it were anyone to walk in on her in such a state, so raw, exposed, so _weak_.

So, naturally, Sun knocked loudly on the door, coughed, and entered the room.

Nether glanced up, the usual fire of her eyes drowned in the tears. So this was what she was when you stripped away the power, when you put her through a _different_ sort of hell. She was… almost nothing.

Sun caught himself. _Idiot. You're worse. You say that you're only alive now because you're strong, you're still going because you're strong, when you know perfectly know that now it's only your brokenness that keeps you going. For ages you've been relying on your shattered edges to get under people's skin._

Sun slumped. He _was_ broken. As broken as his world was. Maybe more so. For a long time he'd been trying to undermine everyone else, particularly Nether, for a long time. The brokenness was all that kept him alive, the desperation to one day become more than it, to fix it. But no matter what you do, that old, brittle plate will never be quite like it was before it was smashed, no matter how many glue bottles are applied to it.

Finally, Nether yelled, "WHAT?!"

Sun jumped, before letting a mask of calm settle over him while he seethed and screamed inside.

"You did- you said something about- Dragon told me- reports- I was late."

Well, he let the mask of calm _almost_ settle over him.

"So?" Nether asked, one eyebrow raised. "What do you have to report?"

 _Rebel? And the tree?_ "Um, not anything- not much really. I, erm, asked around the villages-"

"You're- THAT desperate?" Nether blurted, and hid her face in her hands.

Sun felt incredibly uncomfortable. He knew that everything that happened was mostly his fault, he didn't think to predict Nether's reaction and had thus paid the price. But that didn't mean he could stand to look at her, standing there in this tormented Over-gone-Netherworld.

Nether dragged her fingers down across her cheeks. Her nails dug in. when her hands dropped to her sides, the skin on her face was torn and dripping blood so dark it was almost black.

"At times I still want to kill you," she said. Her voice was wooden.

Sun shrugged. "It's mutual."

Nether closed her eyes. "But let me put it this way. We want the same thing here- me gone." She gave a bitter laugh. "I want me gone. You want me gone. Every damn person, every damn thing here, and not here- it _all wants me gone_." Nether opened her eyes. She took in Sun's expression- nervous, confused, like a cornered animal.

She scrunched up her face. "In any case, you have to find or do whatever will make me get out."

Sun took that as his cue to leave.


	4. A Story

**Listen, I'm sorry.**

 **I know I could've just left everybody to be in pain in the Nether-Overworld fusion, but I had too many ideas. I don't know when to stop. But I just HAD to make this, I had a ton of ideas. Spoiler alert: It only gets worse from hereon out.**

 **(Smiles evilly)**

 **By the way, if you are new to my (weird) story, then DON'T READ THIS. Go read Soul of the Nether. GO!**

* * *

 _Have you ever seen a god? A picture of a god? Now imagine that god with a crease between his eyebrows. Constantly struggling not to cry. Imagine him after almost everything had been stripped away from him._

 _That was how_ he _was now. Forced on some kind of search for an oracle or something. Nobody knew exactly what he was searching for, including him. But whatever it was, he needed to find it, fast._

 _For everyone's good._

 _Because if he didn't…_

 _Things would say as they were._

 _And as he thought about that, a tear escaped his eye._


	5. Sorry

**Hi.**

 **It's me, MoonstoneGoddess.**

 **Firstly, I want to apologise for the last two chapters, which I apparently didn't post. My bad.**

 **And secondly, I want to apologise for barely ever posting anything. I've been having some... I guess you could say mental health issues. Because of this, I'm finding it majorly difficult to focus on anything, even hobbies like writing. The amount of stories I've started and discarded in the last few months is insane. Whenever I'm with people I'm super hyper because I overcompensate for what I'm thinking about. When I'm with people I want to not be. When I'm alone I want to not be. I can't focus on writing anymore, no matter how hard I try. I think I'm going to TRY to keep writing, but I doubt I'm going to be posting very much. Thanks :)**


	6. I'M BACK, BABY

_**YOOOOOOOOO!**_

 _ **It's me!**_

 _ **Basically, I got sick of being a lazy layabout who doesn't write and so HERE I AM!**_

 _ **New chapter going up ASAP!**_

 _ **I'll see you there!**_

 _ **(Unless, of course, you have forgotten about me and I am no longer relevant to you. Plz don't say that happened. I'll make it up to you, I promise.)**_

 _ **-MoonstoneGoddess**_


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